Friday, November 23, 2012

More from the 40 days"I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. Your joy will be a river overflowing its banks! May the God of hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace."

Guignol is the French equivalent of Punch (& Judy), and is a similarly dying art (I'm not sure I ever remember seeing a Punch & Judy show?). This guy is still maintaining the tradition, and we went along to watch. It's mildly reassuring to see that Playstation & iPhone generation can still concentrate and get excited about a little puppet show ("He's behind you!").

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

In understanding the Bible, it is far more important that we understand, as best we can, the message and meaning of entire books, and the story told by those books, rather than just having a personal experience with individual verses.

Friday, November 16, 2012

More from the 40 days"Been thinking about 'purpose'. Yours is simply to be you, to know Him, love Him and reflect Him as best as you know how. Allow His Spirit to fill you and guide you. God bless you, my friend."

The other day I read an article in the free rag about teachers worrying that pupils are becoming increasingly rude to them: lacking in respect, answering back, and even becoming violent.

Which is funny, because when that kind of thing happens between children, teachers call it 'socialisation' - and it's purported to be a good thing:"Oh, you know, that's life, isn't it? Things aren't always easy in the real world*. Children have got to learn to handle these tough situations."

We are supposed to believe that Suffering makes you stronger!

Actually, I believe that:Suffering makes you harderIt's love that makes you stronger**

I'll leave you to chew on that a bit.---Last week, there was a news report on the telly about homeschooling in Switzerland. I found it very interesting that the obligatory 'disagree-er' singled out socialisation as a potential problem, and didn't at all question parents' ability to help their children learn. (* Teachers seem to be the only ones to believe that there is any correlation between school life and 'real' life)(** And pride makes you week, but that'll be for another post)

Here's the second piece I tried the other day, 5th take, still with a few bugs in. You can't see my hands in this one because it uses both manuals (keyboards) and the pipes are in different places: so if the camera is next to me you'd only hear the left hand, not the right.

I really like this piece, even though the title isn't particularly joyful. It took me several months to learn the left hand by heart (it's only 20 years since the last time I tried to learn a piece by heart!)

I forgot to say (I think), that during the summer, one of the bigger (metal) pipes of the organ fell down and almost nobbled someone. Very rare for that to happen, apparently. It's fixed now, anyway.

At long last got round to going and doing some practice on the organ - first time in ages, though I did have a lesson (with the new teacher) near the start of September, I haven't been back on my own since June (or was it May?!).

I recorded this and another piece. The other piece took 5 takes: which my computer is currently choking on, so you'll have to do with this shorter one for the mo.

Last week I went on a whistle-stop trip to Brittany for one of my best buddy's 40th. TGV via Paris, took me 9 hours (you have to change station in Paris - this is the Montparnasse tower, seen from the Montparnasse station).

I was only there for about 34 hours, but it was great to see Pierrick and most of his extended family. After eating too much at 'lunchtime' (i.e., from about midday to 5pm), we had proper Breton 'galettes' in the evening.

His surprise birthday present was a 200kg pool table, which had to be carried in by 6 men. The children promptly set to decorating the box with birthday messages. We then had to carry it back out to a trailer then take it back to his house where we offloaded it into the garage. It's going to be a challenge to get it upstairs to the games room!

All in all, and nice weekend, tiring, but vaguely reminiscent of the good old days when I used to drive directly from work to Portsmouth on a Friday, take the overnight ferry to St-Malo, get picked up by Pierrick and spend the weekend together, then sail back on Sunday night and drive straight back to work!